Time slows down after Yao Shen asks his ill-advised question. He doesn\'t know what made him blurt that out, but clearly he couldn\'t have been of sound mind.

Being near Xin Hulei is completely disconcerting.

In a way, it\'s to be expected. He was one of Xin Hulei\'s biggest fans in his early teen years, and then when they finally met Xin Hulei singlehandedly ruined his chances of making it big in the entertainment industry.

Now Yao Shen has been given a second chance, but Xin Hulei is his costar -- it\'s normal for him to be confused between their somewhat friendly working relationship and all the hurt and indignation he\'s been feeling for the past years.

To say nothing of the confusion of having slept with him despite hating his guts.

Yao Shen\'s decisions are puzzling even to himself.

It takes Xin Hulei a long time to answer. He bridges the final distance between them and slots his long legs between Yao Shen\'s, making him almost swallow his tongue.

"What do you think happened?"

Yao Shen lets out a strangled groan, and hides his flaming face in the pillow, mortified. "Don\'t do that. Don\'t answer a question with another question."

Xin Hulei cups Yao Shen\'s face with one broad palm lifting it from the pillows so Yao Shen is forced to look into his dark eyes. "Are you curious about what it felt like? For you or for me?" His finger slide up Yao Shen\'s jawbone to toy with his earlobe, almost distractedly. "Was it your first time?"

How can Xin Hulei ask something like that with such a straight face?

Yao Shen\'s tongue is laden inside his mouth.

He shifts around on the bed, turning his back to Xin Hulei and curls up on himself. "Nevermind, I shouldn\'t have asked. Good night."

He scrunches his eyes closed in a desperate attempt to trick his body into falling asleep, and ignores the warm breath tickling his exposed nape.

There\'s a sound of rustling fabric behind him, and then Yao Shen feels Xin Hulei\'s body pressed all along his back.

He doesn\'t whimper, but it\'s a close thing.

Xin Hulei\'s hand slides over his hipbone and pulls him backwards into the cradle of his hips.

"Do you want to know if you were nervous or excited?" Xin Hulei asks, his warm breath ghosting over Yao Shen\'s ear shell. "If I fucked you on your back or on your front?"

Yao Shen opens and closes his mouth but no sound comes out. He\'s burning up, and worse still, he can feel himself getting hard with Xin Hulei\'s words alone.

The fingers on his hipbone are dangerously close to where Yao Shen wants them, and yet so far away Xin Hulei might not even be touching him.

A little wildly he wonders if he turns around if Xin Hulei will slide those clever fingers inside his boxers and give Yao Shen a little relief from his tortuous words.

Xin Hulei\'s torture session isn\'t over, though. "Do you want to know if we went all night? Do you want to know if I made your scream?"

Yao Shen curses under his breath, he can\'t take any more of this.

"Stop, the questions," he says, his voice thready and wavering. "Just tell me or shut up."

Xin Hulei\'s sharp teeth close over Yao Shen\'s earlobe, and this time Yao Shen really whimpers, drawing up his knees in an attempt to hide his obvious erection.

"If you must know," Xin Hulei starts, pulling Yao Shen flush against his hips. Yao Shen doesn\'t think he\'s imagining the hardness pressing up into his ass. "Nothing happened."

After feeling like a balloon about to burst, Xin Hulei\'s words are like a knot being undone, letting out all the air out and deflating him.

"Uh?"

Behind him, he hears an exhalation that might have been laughter, and his muscles tense.

Of course.

How could he have been such an idiot?

Xin Hulei is still gripping his hipbone, and for once, he isn\'t done talking, "You weren\'t in your right state of mind, I wouldn\'t have taken advantage of you."

It makes sense. It\'s what any decent person would do.

Which apparently, despite being a Demon King, Xin Hulei is.

So then why does Yao Shen feel a wave of humiliation so powerful it nearly chokes him?

It could be that nothing happened that night because Xin Hulei is a decent person that wouldn\'t take advantage of Yao Shen\'s inebriation.

Or it could be, that even if Yao Shen was fully aware of his surroundings, and actively excited about having sex with him, that Xin Hulei still wouldn\'t want to, simply because Yao Shen isn\'t good enough for him.

Xin Hulei didn\'t think he was good enough to make it past he first round in a stupid acting competition, so why would he think Yao Shen was good enough to sleep with him?

And yet all this time he has let Yao Shen go around thinking something really did happen.

Watching him make a fool of himself, while probably laughing at his stupidity.

Yao Shen is afraid that anything he says will make him sound as pathetic as he feels.

"Why are you so quiet?" Xin Hulei asks, his silken voice flogging Yao Shen\'s skin like a whip, leaving him raw and intimately exposed. "Could it be that you wish I had taken advantage, instead?"

Those whispered, teasing words finally break Yao Shen\'s composure. He flings the covers away from himself and slinks out of the bed, taking his pillow with him.

"I think I should sleep on the sofa," he says, without another look back, and marches out of Xin Hulei\'s bedroom, closing the door behind him with a soft thud.

---

The couch isn\'t very big, and Yao Shen has to curl himself up into a ball to fit. He searches for a blanket he can cover himself with but doesn\'t find anything.

He won\'t go back to Xin Hulei\'s bedroom to get one. Every time he catches a glimpse of the closed door he feels like it\'s mocking him.

Stubbornly, he closes his hot eyes and presses his front against the back of the couch, settling in for an uncomfortable night of uneasy sleep.